Switch will have a performance downside once you progress, however. There's a reason everyone abandoned strapless step-ins en masse over the years. With the Switches your response is directly controlled by how tightly you lace into your boot. With straps, you can crank it down - how firmly you strap in becomes the factor. Granted, how well you lace in is still very important.

I swear by my NXT-AT's, and I liked my Cinches when I had them, but they both had straps over the boot. My very first board I bought as a used package and it had the Burton SI's with matching boots. I loved them.... until I progressed.

__________________
"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."

I had very little trouble with Switch step ins, at times you had to clear the boot so it could fully engage, but a quick swipe across the board cleat was usually all it took. I had little to no trouble with engagement using the Switch system. If it was still available I would choose it over straps or Flows. IMO it was more user friendly with no performance downside, at least not at my level.

alrite dude sorry im not trying to be that guy and cause trouble in your thread. you're just lookin for advice, my bad. flow makes good bindings and anything is better than step-ins. they have no highback so theres no heal edge support(i learned with them). whatever floats your boat dude as long as you're having fun, thats what shredding is about.

I've boarded a total of 8 years over the past 11 years. Granted I was a little one for the first 5 years (7-13), I still road enough to know a good amount about the different kinds of bindings.

I started with regular strap in bindings. Liked them, but didn't have the balance at first to really stand up and strap in. Then I moved into the craze of the strapless step ins. They were about the only ones that I never had to sit down to get in, however I would inevitably sit down when they would unlatch from my boot. Now I'm using K2 cinches. Very smooth to use, although sometimes I tighten my streps a little too tight and end up loosening them so I can lock the binding. Occasionally I end up sitting down simply because I loose my balance, but not often.

Long and drawn out: I guess what I'm saying is that Yes, balance has a lot to do with whether you need to sit down with any binding. However, step in's require less balance to "strap on" then regular strap ins. Experience also goes a long way too.

Also, about the plastic design of the Cinches: I wouldn't fret too much about them. Even though its plastic, its not chinsy plastic in the least. It honestly "feels" as strong as aluminium, even though it may not. Compared to my friends burton bindings, the plastic feels of a lot higher quality.

I rode the Flows for 7 hours yesterday, here's my experience. I had adjusted them at home and spent quite a bit of time getting them just right. That was worthwhile as I only had to add a click or 2 more on a couple buckles. I had very little trouble getting into the Flows standing up, felt like I wrestled with the a bit more early on, and got much smoother after an hour or two.
Performance wise I felt like these were kinda vague feeling compared to the 2010 Ride EX's I ran last week. That feeling of vagueness wore off after a couple hours, they just feel different than strap-ins IMO. I suspect there is a little feedback you give up to run Flows, and even at my beginer level I could feel it. However, as the night progressed I got used to the feel and I don't think they were holding me back at all.
The comfort on these are superb, many Flow reviews talk about how the pressure is distributed accross the large top-strap, which IMO is very true. Absolutely no pressure points and I was boarding for 7 hours.
So at the end of the day, these bingings accomplished what I expected them to. Get in and out of them easily w/o having to sit down, all day comfort (more so than straps in my experience), and don't cost me much (if any) performance. If maximum performance was my main concern, I would likely look to some kind of strap binding, but for what I've got going on, I like these.

alrite dude sorry im not trying to be that guy and cause trouble in your thread. you're just lookin for advice, my bad. flow makes good bindings and anything is better than step-ins. they have no highback so theres no heal edge support(i learned with them). whatever floats your boat dude as long as you're having fun, thats what shredding is about.

later

That's big of you to say so, thanks. I agree, we're all just looking for ways to leverage technology to improve.

I've boarded a total of 8 years over the past 11 years. Granted I was a little one for the first 5 years (7-13), I still road enough to know a good amount about the different kinds of bindings.

I started with regular strap in bindings. Liked them, but didn't have the balance at first to really stand up and strap in. Then I moved into the craze of the strapless step ins. They were about the only ones that I never had to sit down to get in, however I would inevitably sit down when they would unlatch from my boot. Now I'm using K2 cinches. Very smooth to use, although sometimes I tighten my streps a little too tight and end up loosening them so I can lock the binding. Occasionally I end up sitting down simply because I loose my balance, but not often.

Long and drawn out: I guess what I'm saying is that Yes, balance has a lot to do with whether you need to sit down with any binding. However, step in's require less balance to "strap on" then regular strap ins. Experience also goes a long way too.

Also, about the plastic design of the Cinches: I wouldn't fret too much about them. Even though its plastic, its not chinsy plastic in the least. It honestly "feels" as strong as aluminium, even though it may not. Compared to my friends burton bindings, the plastic feels of a lot higher quality.

I may try Cinches down the road, they look very nice. K2 is obviously very strong on engineering, so I'm sure it's a very sound design.